California Mayor and Ex-City Manager Arrested

byChris BoundsonSeptember 22, 2010

The mayor of Bell, California along with the ex-city manager and eight others were arrested yesterday.

If you remember, Bell made national headlines when protests broke out over a corruption scandal that had city workers being paid overly excessive salaries. Now this town is slowly seeing justice being served. From Breitbart:

The district attorney’s office said several former and current City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

“This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids,” District Attorney Steve Cooley said at a news conference, standing next to a display of pictures of the suspects.

The district attorney, state attorney general and others have been investigating officials in the small working-class city since it was disclosed this summer that they were paying themselves huge salaries.

Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.

The investigations involve allegations of corruption, misuse of public funds and voter fraud in the city where one in six of the 40,000 residents live in poverty…

Prosecutors allege the suspects misappropriated more than $5.5 million, including making illegal personal loans.

The complaint also said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council, and that council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called “phantom meetings” of various city boards and agencies.

Rizzo also was accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and dozens of others, authorities said.